Donald Trump

[FreeThinker]

From a New Yorker profile of Donald Trump:

The socioeconomic forces are real, but Trump is also the beneficiary of a long process of Republican intellectual decadence. Paul Ryan denounces Trump but not the Tea Party rhetoric that propelled his own political ascent. John McCain holds Trump in contempt, but selected as his running mate Sarah Palin, the Know-Nothing of Wasilla, one of Trump’s most vivid forerunners and supporters. Mitt Romney last week righteously slammed Trump as a “phony” and a misogynist, and yet in 2012 he embraced Trump’s endorsement and praised his “extraordinary” understanding of economics.

The G.O.P. establishment may be in a state of meltdown, but this process of exploiting the darkest American undercurrents began with Richard Nixon’s Southern Strategy and, more lately, has included the birther movement and the Obama Derangement Syndrome. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who compete hard for the most extreme positions in conservatism, decry the viciousness and the vacuousness of Trump, but they started out by deferring to him––and now they ape his vulgarity in a last-ditch effort to keep pace. Insults. Bigotry. Nationally televised assurances of adequate genital dimensions. This is the political moment in which we live. The Republican Party, having spent years courting the basest impulses in American political culture, now sees the writing on the wall. It reads “Donald Trump,” in very big letters.

Fox News and Rush Limbaugh have spent the last two decades stoking white, working class anger toward anyone who is different, who is "other," and now they face the monster they encouraged.

[Chris James]

How long before Trump supporters start wearing their brown shirts and armbands? We​ are going to see more incidents like this, and it will get worse if Trump gets the Republican nomination.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/%e2%80%98trump-trump-trump%e2%80%99-atttacker-allegedly-yelled-as-he-beat-hispanic-man-muslim-student/ar-AAgKMll?li=BBnbcA1

​

[Addym Kehris]

George Takei posted the link for this article today. Thought it'd be interesting to see if this succeeds.

http://mic.com/articles/137914/anonymous-just-declared-war-on-donald-trump-with-massive-cyberattack?utm_source=policymicFB&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=WHFacebook&utm_content=inf_10_285_2&tse_id=INF_47346b504f904bf79eed25f668fd3004#.TEnZGoIo9

[Graeme]

George Takei posted the link for this article today. Thought it'd be interesting to see if this succeeds.

http://mic.com/articles/137914/anonymous-just-declared-war-on-donald-trump-with-massive-cyberattack?utm_source=policymicFB&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=WHFacebook&utm_content=inf_10_285_2&tse_id=INF_47346b504f904bf79eed25f668fd3004#.TEnZGoIo9

I can see this being counterproductive. A presidential candidate is going to be attacked by what many would consider to be a criminal organisation. That's going to gather sympathy for him unless they find real dirt to spread. If it's just cyber-attacks on his websites, that's not going to help.

[JamesSavik]

[ChrisR]

There is no question in my mind that Trump is an ass. He will not receive my vote in any public forum and I can only hope and pray that the majority of folks will agree.

That said, however, I find that a group soliciting volunteers to join in a conspiracy to interfere with anybody's right to free speech -- even Donald -- is one of the more frightening things I've heard in my lifetime. How does it differ from any other gang of thugs? Or from some group that finds this website or any other website offensive?

It immediately brought to mind the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller

...Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak out.

[FreeThinker]

I am not a fan of Anonymous--at least of some of their tactics. I can sympathize with some of what they want to achieve, but I don't always approve of their means. That said, I won't lose sleep if Trump's website goes down. What frightens me more, however, is what Trump's Putinesque response might be, or should that be puttanesca response? (Sorry, that just popped into my head).

Sinclair Lewis wrote a marvelous (and prescient) novel in 1934 entitled, It Can't Happen Here, in which FDR is challenged in the 1936 election for the Democratic nomination by a fascist ala Huey P. Long, who wins the election with the support of Southerners and northern conservatives. Read it. Really. Read it and then think about the parallels with what is happening today. I first read it in 1973 in high school.

It can happen here.

[colinian]

There's an article by Robert Reich in the Sunday, March 13 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle titled "Donald Trump, an American fascist." This article details some of the reasons that Donald Trump as President of the U.S.A. scares me.

Colin

[Joe]

This possible scenario occurred to me: Trump fails to secure the nomination going into the convention; the convention devolves into chaos and the party apparatchik give the nomination to someone else; Trump goes postal and launches a third party run which goes down to defeat. I like it, but it all depends on the delegate count at the start of the convention. But if Teddy Roosevelt couldn't make a third party run work, Trump certainly won't.

I doubt that the Anonymous campaign will have much effect. Many of Trumps supporters have never heard of them and could care less while many of Trumps opponents, who have heard of it, will not sympathize with him enough to alter their opposition and their vote.

[Bruin Fisher]

The Economist's Intelligence Unit (EIU) have, according to this BBC article, pronounced that a Donald Trump presidency is among the top ten global risks. In other words it would be dangerous, comparable to an upsurge in global terrorism or a collapse of the EU.

[ChrisR]

There's an article by Robert Reich in the Sunday, March 13 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle titled "Donald Trump, an American fascist." This article details some of the reasons that Donald Trump as President of the U.S.A. scares me.

I like Robert's work, but I can't help but chuckle when a guy named "Reich" calls somebody a fascist!

[Pedro]

I do not claim to be as well informed as others here about the issues, personalities and the mood of the nation as the U.S. heads towards a new President.

However here in my little hut in the woods across the Pond I worry that the collective psyche is such that Trump will be elected, and the world will, in the words of the cliche, catch a cold. A very nasty one.

I might be wrong but I see a man on an ego-trip, with no real policies other than 'scapegoatism' and serving no.1, a business model that involves serial bankruptcy of the companies he controls, an unwillingness to engage brain before opening mouth and little or no experience in public office. If elected I fear we will come to see McCarthy as a liberal, Nixon as a role model for clean politics , and W as an intellectual with superb command of the English language.

Unfortunately the front runner for the Democrats is seen as damaged goods with her long involvement in the Washington bubble.

Maybe the only hope is for Trump to upset the women of the U.S. so much that they will put aside any jealousies and other reservations they might have and vote for their sister.

[Cole Parker]

Pretty good analysis!

C

[Joe]

Well, helpless optimist that I am, I do not think he will be elected. Pedro's analysis of Trump is spot on, but that is what will cause him to lose the general elections assuming that he gets the nomination. Here are some interesting facts gleaned from different media sources:

According to the Republican National Committee, a Republican needs to secure at least 35 percent of the Hispanic vote in order to win the presidency. Trump isn't even close

Women are 51 percent of the electorate, Trumps unfavorable rating among women runs in excess of 60 percent

Trump will not receive a significant percentage of the Black vote

Trump will carry none of the blue states

Trump will not get a significant percentage of the Democratic Party vote.

Trump will probably do as dismally as Goldwater if he gets the nomination.

Clinton will be looking distinguished by the time of the election of her campaign is as capable as it better be.

[Nigel Gordon]

The Economist's Intelligence Unit (EIU) have, according to this BBC article, pronounced that a Donald Trump presidency is among the top ten global risks. In other words it would be dangerous, comparable to an upsurge in global terrorism or a collapse of the EU.

Just been to a security and risk briefing. The possibility of Donald Trump being elected to the presidency of the United States was listed as the number one major threat to world stability. Strangely enough Donald Trump not being elected was listed as the seventh major threat to world stability. The theory was that if Trump fails to be elected, or even fails to get the nomination the resultant split in the Republican party in the United States will result in long term political instability in the States, leading to a major economic crisis.

It looks like a bad outcome either way.

[Chris James]

Oh Hell No..... http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/carson%e2%80%99s-camp-plots-vp-bid/ar-BBqCG6q?ocid=spartandhp

So when Trump gets impeached (as per my forecast) we would get stuck with Ben Carson? I suppose I can still post to AD from a nice home in Canada.

[ChrisR]

Okay - I've never particularly thought of Mel Brooks as prescient, but this dances incredibly close to the "nominate the new sheriff" routine from Blazing Saddles:

Hedley Lamar: One day is all we'll need to secure your name in the annals of Western history,                       and to get for you a nomination for, dare I say...?Gov Le Petamaine: Dare, dare!Hedley Lamar: The Presidency!

Sadly, this isn't some wild west comedy. A nomination for Ben Carson could actually provide a number of swing voters for Trump. Even a rumored nomination could have an impact, given recent minority polling that doesn't show a particularly strong following for Clinton.This whole election cycle is turning the American experiment with democracy into a shambles.

[colinian]

Vancouver, BC has homes that are very nice but very expensive. And the weather is just a bit colder than Seattle. Go to zolo,ca for listings.

Colin

[FreeThinker]

Lets all pray that Trudeau doesn't build a wall along the southern border of Canada!

[Nigel Gordon]

Lets all pray that Trudeau doesn't build a wall along the southern border of Canada!

No, Trump will have to do that to stop the economy flowing north. Remember the Berlin wall was not built to keep the West out but to keep the East Germans in.

[Chris James]

​Despite the serious and yet humorous university study that qualifies the Trump having the intelligence of a fifth grader there is very little said about his past. A man is known by his friends and yet the media has ignored Trump's New York mob connections. Perhaps they think the viewers are too ignorant to understand, or the new mob of billionaires won't allow the truth to be told.

​The name Roy Cohn may not mean much to you unless you recall the McCarthy years of anti-communist purges, and the homosexual purge that followed. Cohn was there in the middle of it as a lawyer for the prosecution, best known as the Jew who as responsible for having the Rosenbergs put to death. Later on he was tied to major mob figures who used his legal services.

​But Cohn was also a young Donald Trump's mentor and much of what we see of the presidential candidate today dates back to what he learned from his hateful tutor. Roy Cohn espoused hate for homos, and yet he died of AIDS in 1986. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that the man was deeply closeted...and a total hypocrite.

Says a lot about the company Trump has kept in his life...and we want to give this man a chance at the White House?

[Cole Parker]

I had no idea Trump has ties to Cohn. Thanks, Chris. One more reason to loathe him.

C

[Nigel Gordon]

​But Cohn was also a young Donald Trump's mentor and much of what we see of the presidential candidate today dates back to what he learned from his hateful tutor. Roy Cohn espoused hate for homos, and yet he died of AIDS in 1986. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that the man was deeply closeted...and a total hypocrite.

I was once told by somebody who had the misfortune to cross Roy Cohn that Cohn was the only man he had met who made Hitler look reasonable. The person who said that was a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who ended up in London having fled the persecution of McCarthy and Cohn.

[Cole Parker]

I suppose everyone here knows who H.L. Mencken was. He died in 1956, so probably had no idea who Donald Trump was, but one of his witticisms certainly seems to apply:

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

H. L. Mencken